Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Jim Sullivan 'U.F.O'

Sometimes someone puts an album on while you're in a record store that stops you in your tracks, and Jim Sullivan's 'U.F.O' was this title for me last Saturday, unearthed by Light In The Attic (Jim Ford, Michael Chapman, Michael Hurley).

The mysterious way Jim Sullivan disappeared sets the tone for the record. In March 1975 his VW Bug was discovered ditched in Santa Rosa, New Mexico and the hotel he was staying in was found fully intact. Some think he walked into the desert and never came back, some think he got into trouble with a local family linked to the mafia and others theorize he was kidnapped by aliens. No one knows really what happened, the only fact that remains is Jim Sullivan was never seen again.

Recorded in 1969 'U.F.O' is American Pop woven with folk and a singer fraying at the edges. Complete with a Wurlitzer, string arrangements and wind instruments this album is both lush and bright weighed down with undercurrents of dejection in Sullivan's lyrics and singing, just listen to "Rosey" to see what I'm talking about! Turning the tables "Roll Back The Time" features a simple acoustic guitar and soft beats revealing a stripped down number that is just as moving. Closer "Sandman" is an exquisite weathered folk song that deals out feelings of love and loss in equal measure. 'U.F.O' is a mind-blowing piece of lost American folk/pop and well worth your time.